honest, descriptive, niche fragrance critique…

Slumberhouse – Vikt, Jeke, Rume, Grev, Norne, Miel, Baque

I have wanted to try the Slumberhouse line for aggesssss!
I caved in and ordered the sample set and they arrived all gleaming, thick and colourful :D
I’m going to do the same kind of thing I did with the Humiecki & Graef post and just write my thoughts as I go along – initial impressions are always exciting to write out and look back to after you’ve worn them more. These are going to be really brief and maybe in time I’ll look into them properly.

Mmmmm! Vikt opens dense and syrupy. It’s green, leafy, with some resinous syrup underneath providing some sticky sweetness.
There’s something slightly mentholated in there, which may be a bit of clove actually, but it’s really nice. A little bit of sour oud adds to the slightly medicinal effect of the clove – which paired with the resin syrup is beautifully sweet and refined.

The texture of Vikt is very dense, and painted green. I’m quite suprised actually, I thought Vikt would be a lot more challenging as it’s considered the “house fragrance” as such. It actually smells like something that wouldn’t be out-of-place in the Serge Lutens’ line up. It has that sweet rich texture that’s so famously associated with Sheldrake.

There’s an anise type note that’s pretty dominant. It kind of darted in and out of focus in the first few minutes and I thought I was imagining it but ten minutes on its obvious. I like it. It’s sweet like sambucca and is lovely with the resinous greenery.

All in all – a lot safer than I thought. Lovely, sweet, resinous, beautiful subtle oud notes running throughout. Very nice!

Jeke opens lovely as well! From a distance I get a bizarre creamy coconut note, but up close, it’s medicinal with cloves yet again. Clove prominent fragrances are my least favourite in generale, this borders on warm, cooking cloves, but thankfully has a slightly mentholated edge – yet again, that keeps them cool enough for my liking.

So yes, a bundle of cloves which is now giving way slightly to a super rich exotic leather and green spice. My nose is literally glued to my arm, it is brilliant :)
It smells slightly caremalized, burnt and smoky. There’s so much going on and it’s all wonderful. There’s the squeaky, medicinal cloves, smoky leaves, spicy leather, burnt caramel.

Liking this so far. It reminds me of Kretek cigarettes. The smoky cloves and tobacco with the sweetness of the filter tip – lovely stuff.

Oh wow, Rume is very bizarre. It’s the strongest of the bunch so far. There seems to be an immediate beeswax honey note which is very animalic I’ll say. A big bunch of bay leaves comes in, I don’t have much experience with bay but I remember it well from Une Rose Chypree which took a long time to rub right with me.

There’s some real dark spices in the mix too and it almost smells like KA Jamaican Cola, only a whole lot richer of course. Rume smells like the colour of the juice, it’s dark, spicy – it has some savoury grassy notes in there, and it seems cloves again! Cloves must be like, a house signature because it’s coming through in every fragrance so far. Which to be honest is great for me, because it’s my least favourite note, and I’m enjoying every one of these.

Apparently there is a lot of myrrh in Rume, I don’t really detect it properly, the smooth resins kind of overpower it, but it does have that slightly rubbery edge that is often associated with the note.

The rich, black gummy sweetness of labdanum thickens up the base in a black laquer.
Rume is a really complicated mix of unusual spices and contrasting notes of sweet/sour/bitter/medicinal/animalic. It’s something very unique. I’m not sure how comfortable I am wearing it, but will definitely try it out more often.

Suprise suprise, Grev opens with a huge bunch of medicinal cloves! It reminds me of Stephen Jones without the aldehydes. Actually, maybe there are some aldehydes in this, but not as many of course. This settles down pretty quickly and the fragrance becomes very fine.

Grev is a clove-calogne. It is masculine, delicate, full of medicinal cloves and delicate spices. It’s extremely clean and suprisingly comfortable. I would actually happily wear this, it is like a much more wearable version of Stephen Jones! It’s bizarre because I shouldn’t like it at all, it’s everything that I hate. The words “clove” and “cologne” in one brief description would make me run the other way, maybe that’s why I’m so drawn to it – it’s like nothing I’ve had on my skin before.

There’s not actually much more I can add, it’s simple, clean, light, and definitely the least complex (or interesting really) of the group. But still, something unusual for me.

Update: I just tried the new formulation of this (I know Slumberhouse reformulate regularly – but always to improve, and successfully), it’s even better. A beautiful soapy clove with a hint of anise and citrus – gorgeous masculine, clean, and still unusual – balsamic in the base, I may have to buy a bottle of this.

Really really like the opening of Norne, it’s somehow really familiar but I don’t think I’ve smelt something like it before.
Actually… I’m wrong, it’s a little bit like Vikt, only less sweet.
There’s definitely some frankincense in there which is really nice, kind of similar to that used in the Tauer’s.
Norne is resinous, and has some unidentifiable green notes with a dose of pine on top.

However, it quickly goes from being very strong, to very subtle – and for me it feels a little like something’s missing. It’s airy, but dry and herbal.
There’s something slightly mentholated (maybe some hidden cloves) and yep – resinous greens.

Looking at the list of notes: needle, linchen, fern, moss, hemlock… I don’t know what many of them smell like to be honest, but it’s not as green and leafy as it sounds, it’s much more sweet, dry and light.

Norne is the most recent release, and it’s not quite as edgy as some of the others – but a nice addition, and very easy to wear.

SO! A great house so far, I wish I got the opportunity to try Ore before it was discontinued, I would blind buy a bottle as it’s still available on Indie scents but… I’ve learnt my lesson after my Smell Bent mishap. It seems cloves is the Slumberhouse’s signature, along with sappy resins, it’s all lovely and no complaints from me :) I’m pretty sure I’ll end up with a bottle of one of these, I’ll keep trying them and report back when I’ve made up my mind :D

I wasn’t going to include these two, but considering that didn’t take as long as I thought it would, I’ll do two further little reviews on the extra samples Slumberhouse threw into my goody-bag!

EXTRAS:

Miel and Baque are two mystery samples that I have no real knowledge about so will see what I can get from these. Apparently they will be released later in the year.

Miel is so thick and sticky! Wow, super concentrated, it goes on translucent and dark green. This stuff is pretty wild. It’s real feral honey and dirty leather. It is super rich, animalic – it is sticky and cloying and I love it!

It has a bizarre cardboard type of smell to it and has the kind of dark spiciness that Rume has to it. I had a quick look on the website and it states there is black tea in this, and that’s exactly what I can now smell – very bitter unsweetened black tea. The honey is providing the sweetness though, although that is so thick and intense it almost becomes bitter. There’s also a slightly smoky tobacco note running throughout it. It sounds a lot richer than it actually it’s, Miel is strangely muted and the cardboard type smell is really prominent to me.

Really lovely, I think I’ll get a bottle of this when it is released. It’s a wonderful challenging honey/tobacco fragrance and I would love to wear this.

Baque is also a rich tobacco, although it is sweeter, a little lighter with what seems to be a lovely creamy yet still crumbly and resinous amber underneath. There’s some vanilla in there that resembles the bean, and similar to Mona di Orio’s Vanille (which I’ve yet to review) is less sweet than the traditional vanilla in perfumery.

Baque is really lovely, it’s yet again easy to wear and has some contrasting notes of sweetness/bitterness and a slight green twang underneath.

Wonderful though and I’ll look forward to exploring my sample pack more and spending many days getting my head around them.

I just bought the sample set, a spur of the moment thing… I just HAD TO HAVE THEM!! I didn´t read anything about them, I just ordered! After reading this I´m anticipating them even more, they sound like just my thing! Clove and resins!! <3